I intend to use my blog to keep you informed of things happening with my car(s) and anything in life I find interesting, unusual or worthy of sharing! Please check back regularly to see what's been happening in the world of Simo

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Hospitality event at Bruntingthorpe

With the car ready for the track, myself and Graeme headed back to Leicestershire for the FCS hospitality day at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground. It turned out to be a really great day with a huge variety of different cars out on track... Porches, Skylines, Caterhams, Merc's, Saxos, AX's, Clios, to name but a few.

I had borrowed Ant's rally-spec camera mount, so we were fortunate enough to get plenty of in-car video footage of our antics! (check out the Premium Member video section.)

It was good to catch up with a few SSC track whores too - these guy's cars took the stripped out look to a whole new dimension! Good effort guys! It was also nice to catch up with the infamous RobT, who I spotted roaming around in the bushes with a mahoosive camera lens! (Thankyou so much for the photos Rob!)

Graeme was pleased when I told him to get behind the wheel and thrash it around the track a couple of times... he wasn't pushing anywhere near as hard as me, but he still managed to get the car on three wheels, god only knows how far the rear was lifting whilst I was driving! Stiffer suspension needed, maybe?

I had one close shave whilst out on track. I'd just overtaken an Astra and some Caterham-type thing... then bailing into one of the fastest corners on the track I lifted the accelerator. I wasn't in any particular rush to get around this corner and decided to cut in tight and let some people pass... but not this time!

Just as we got to the apex of the corner, doing about 90mph the rear of the car went extremely light as we de-cellerated. Before I knew what was happening the car had spun in towards the infield. Somehow I managed to react quick enough to spin the car out backwards! (Again, this is all captured in the Premium Member video section).

Fortunately nobody was hurt, although the Astra driver had a bit of a brown trouser moment! We had a chat about it when we got back to the pits... we both took away a story to tell in the pub! The only casualty of the day was my front passenger side Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3 tyre. The spin at speed had severely punished the tread, which was now missing big cobbles of rubber. D'oh!

The new BIG brakes proved to be a real winner out on the track, showing awesome braking force! I just need to sort the stability of the car out now, as its far too light and twitchy at the rear! Whether this is due to the suspension being too high after taking the ICE out, or whether this is due to the rear bumper acting as a sail, I've yet to decide.